The availability of reliable and up-to-date water data is essential for the efficient management of water resources in the country. With the purpose to have a central repository of nationwide water resource data, National Water Informatics Centre (NWIC) has been set up as a subordinate office under Ministry of Jal Shakti, Department of Water Resources, RD & GR on 28th March 2018 by the Government. The Centre is headed by Director NWIC [ a Joint Secretary Level officer].
The vision,mission, roles and responsibilities of the organization are as below:
Vision:
To be a modern state of the art data repository of water resources & allied themes to facilitate informatics-based sustainable development and management of water resources of the country.
Mission:
To provide a single-window solution for comprehensive, authoritative and consistent data & information of India's water resources and allied themes in a standard national GIS framework for planning, development and management of water resources in the country.
Roles & Responsibilties:
Its mandate is to ensure timely and reliable water resources data acquisition, collation, management & its dissemination and to provide tools for decision-making in the field of water resources management.
Objectives/Activities:
- Collect available data from varied sources, generate new databases, organize in standardized GIS format and provide scalable web-enabled information system
- Maintain, update, collate and disseminate water data and information on water resources and allied themes
- Sharing of water resources and hydro-meteorological data amongst central and state government organisations and other stakeholders of water & general public
- Provide tools to create value-added maps by way of multilayer stacking of GIS database so as to provide an integrated view of the water resources scenarios
- Collaborate with national/ international research institutes
NWIC is handling the operations & maintenance of two web-enabled water resources data platforms; WIMS & India-WRIS.
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Water Information Management System (WIMS): WIMS is an integrated web-based data collection platform through which different agencies update the latest available data on water. The platform is accessed by the agencies through a unique user ID and password. WIMS has provisions for form-based manual data entry and integrated with INSAT & GPRS technology for real time telemetry data. The system has functionalities for managing data entry and processing, storage & management, data analysis and reporting. The platform offers various module-wise applications for State and Central agencies for effective database addition, updating and sharing.
- The India Water Resources Information System (India-WRIS): : - India-WRIS is a "single-window" platform for dissemination of data on water resources and allied themes. It allows users to Search, Access, Visualize, Understand and Analyse comprehensive and contextual water data for the assessment, monitoring, planning and development of water resources in the context of Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM). The India-WRIS platform provides the users with information that is segmented on the basis of simplified themes such as Surface Water, Groundwater, Land Resources, Hydro-Meteorological, Allied Themes & Projects.
NWIC has recently initiated two other projects i.e., State Water Informatics Centre (SWIC) & Integrated Water & Crop Management & Information System (IWCIMS).
- State Water Informatics Centre (SWIC): NWIC has prepared a framework for establishing State Water Informatics Centres (SWIC) to act as a dedicated organization for coordination, collection & dissemination of water resources data at state level for better planning and management of water resources of the state. The SWIC in collaboration with the NWIC is planned to serve as a single point of contact for regional and micro-level data amalgamation and dissemination. NWIC will handhold the states during all the stages of implementation of SWIC and the development of State-Water Resources Information System (State-WRIS) by providing technical guidance and support.
- Integrated Water and Crop Information and Management System (IWCIMS): IWCIMS aims to develop Decision Support Systems for better management & decision-making with respect to water & crop resources in an integrated approach. The IWCIMS project was awarded to WAPCOS Ltd., a Govt. of India undertaking, on a turn-key basis. Currently feasibility study (pre-implementation phase) for the project is ongoing.
जल संसाधन, नदी विकास और गंगा संरक्षण विभाग
Department of Water Resources, 
